Weak Pikemen with lethal Pike Walls, Spear Walls and Spear Squares
Updated 2020: A bit stronger walls, but movement speed slowed considerably.
Yes, this is built to work with most other Attila/Bel/Char mods that have units modifications.
I only modded the melee weapon and special ability tables.
This mod is based on extensive testing and review of other pike/spear wall mods.
Pikes themselves are one of the weakest weapons on the list.
The pike units are pretty useless without their special ability.
With the special ability, many bonuses come into play that reflect their actual battle dynamics.
In particular, pike walls were nearly invulnerable from the front.
The best stat to reflect this -shield defense and not defense- is greatly increased in this mod for the appropriate formations.
Yes, there were no proper hoplites after Greece, but compressed spear walls were used through the dark ages.
This mod does not touch the stats of any units to allow many tiers of pikes if a modder wishes.
Pike walls: Able to hold the line unless they are flanked. It is hard to break them in urban settings. Added knockback animations.Less missile cover than in Vanilla. Slightly slower than infantry. Be sure to lower the pikes before impact. You only have a 2 second window to lower them.
Pke Square: Large bonus to anti-cavalry ability. Moderate anti-missile. Modest defense. Immobile. For tier 1 or those without the other two listed here. The barbarian version of testudo.
Spear Wall: This is really a toned down Pike wall with the missile block chance set at 25. Very slow. I would recommend it be assigned only to mid-level spear units, not tier 1 as it is powerful. I didn’t add that much bonus against cav because spear units already have very high anti-cavalry damage. It is meant to be more powerful than a shield wall with additional cavalry protection. Downside is its speed.
LS Modder collection: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1420203491
